This invention relates to replaceable pockets for garments and particularly to replaceable hip pockets that may be used on jeans and replaced whenever desired, either for utility or for reasons of style.
The idea of attaching pockets to garments by means of snap fasteners is shown in the prior art, such as Frohman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,591,059; Nicholson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,810,132; and Corley, U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,982. Frohman proposes to replace a torn pocket in pants by cutting most of the torn pocket away, except for a specific remnant, and attaching to the remnant a new pocket that has snap fasteners with cloth-piercing heads on one part of each fastener. The heads pierce the remnant fabric and engage receptacle fastener portions on the facing layer of fabric that forms part of the new pocket. By so doing, the new pocket is clamped onto the remnant without any complex or difficult sewing operations. The replacement pocket is an entire pocket, with part of its perimeter being defined by a fold in the pocket fabric and another part being formed by previously stitched juxtaposed edges of the pocket material. Only the edge portions adjacent which the snap fasteners are mounted are not joined together, which is obviously necessary to allow entry to the pocket.
The upper half of Nicholson's pocket is permanently sewn to a child's jeans so that the pocket is not easily replaceable. The pocket is twice as long, vertically, as it need be, and it has a holster for a toy gun attached to its outer surface. When the child is not playing with a gun, the lower half of the pocket material may be folded approximately about the horizontal center line of the material, and the two lower corners snapped onto the upper two corners by mating fasteners attached to the respective corners. In that configuration, the material forms somewhat of a pocket, but its vertical edges are open, and anything put into it, other than something relatively large, would be expected to fall out.
Corley provides a complete pocket structure, with corner snap fastener components and another such component midway between the two corners at the open end of the pocket. These components engage mating components attached to the inside surfaces of hip boots for the purpose of releasably attaching the pockets inside the boots in position for use as hand warmers. At the same time, the fact that the pockets are releasable allows them to be removed to be cleaned or dried or replaced easily. Each pocket is complete; it does not rely on the surface to which it is attached to form one of the two pocket layers. Also, the edges of the pocket are joined together permanently, as is customary with pockets in garments, and the layers are not releasably joined by means of Velcro and sturdy stud fasteners.
Dobell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,062, shows a patch pocket consisting of a single layer that forms the outer layer of the pocket and is joined to the outer surface of a jacket by a curved Velcro strip that extends down one of the vertical edges, around the bottom, and up the other vertical edge. Two snap fastener elements are provided at the upper corners to engage mating fastener elements on the jacket to help align the pocket properly. The part of the jacket over which the outer pocket layer fits constitutes the inner layer. While the side and bottom edges are closed by means of the Velcro, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to sew Velcro along a sharply curved arc in the manner indicated by Dobell, and it would be very expensive to get wide Velcro and cut it according to an arcuate shape.